Once upon a time there was a brand. It was young, and used to tell stories that were mostly fun and games and laughter. And it did very well. People listened to its tales; they identified with it, told their friends and made the brand even more popular. The brand grew and grew and became synonymous with being young, letting your hair down, and rebellion.
A few years later, the brand, still going strong, decided to launch a Twitter contest. It told its customers to use a hashtag to describe it, somewhat like this – #ILove(Brand)Because followed by their reasons, the best of which would win a gift hamper filled with bags full of stuff branded extensively with, the brand, of course. The brand thought it was a pretty neat idea. So it started the contest, and waited.
The competition started well, with people answering like they were supposed to, the contest jumped on to the Twitter trends and everything seemed brilliant. The brand was pretty happy.
But then something happened.
Some people started using the hashtag to make fun of the brand, and what’s more, other people thought it immensely funny and started to do it themselves. In a few hours, the brand’s social contest had turned into a reputation management exercise, as the brand tried its best to stop all the mockery being made of it. It failed, of course; the brand had no control over the social sphere, and every small mistake that it had made on the way was exposed and ridiculed publicly.
The brand was now trending worldwide on Twitter, but not exactly the way it wanted to. Competitors had jumped on the bandwagon as well, ridiculing and taunting them with well timed, funny tweets. The very people who the brand hoped would not get wind of this were now enjoying the spectacle thoroughly.
The brand could not understand. What had it done wrong here? It was following every rule in the rulebook, wasn’t it? This should not have happened.
True, the brand had followed every rule in the rulebook.
The problem was and is that the rules have changed. The brand was playing by standards that have since long become obsolete.
The brand is now not owned by the organization, it isn’t owned the people who built it – it is owned by the people who come into contact with it, who use it every day, and its meaning and symbolism will come from what they think of it, not from a marketing agency. It’s also owned by competitors, because they are part of the public sphere as well. And are they allowed to take you on in the social sphere? Of course they are.
This is the truth of the times, and the marketer that understands this first has an advantage over the one that doesn’t.
So what can a marketer do?
Once he recognizes the fact that the brand does not belong to him now, he can start building around that problem.
He has to give customers the chance to decide what the brands mean to them, and try to guide the brand to the desired positioning.
Because if the brand is positioned as something customers can’t relate to, there will be a backlash, and it can lead to situations difficult to even imagine. Like the story of the brand told above.
So if you are a brand, let your customers own you. Let them figure out what you mean to them. Let them position you in their heads. Let them come up with the slogan that best describes you. Don’t throw something you have made up at them. They are more than likely to throw it back at you. And your competitors are sure to take a stand that is on the South Pole to your North Pole.
It’s better when your customers tell your story. That’s when it’s told best. Let them do it.
